How does the board-sliding mechanic work?

Every swipe — up, down, left, right — moves the entire 5×5 grid in that direction. Blocks of the same value that collide merge according to powers of two. That's what creates the tension: a single move can throw off the balance of the whole grid.

What do you need to do once you've created the ★64?

You have to escort it to the exit door, located on the right edge of the board. Once it's successfully cleared out, you pocket 1,000 points and free up space. But the path is never clear — one wrong swipe can lock it behind a stack.

How does the private tournament mode work?

You create a group, set a duration ranging from one hour to one month, and share a code with your friends. Everyone plays within the given window, and the leaderboard freezes once the countdown ends to determine the winner.

Is there any paid content or aggressive free-to-play mechanics?

No. Zero paywalled levels, zero energy meter, zero ad banners cutting into the action. Negatek deliberately ignored the usual mobile revenue playbook to offer a game you launch "for two minutes" and then can't put down.

Sliding 64: the mobile puzzle where the entire board slides, free on iOS and Android

Sliding 64 has recently become available on iOS, macOS and Android, for free. This block-merging puzzle is the first title from Negatek, an independent studio, and it rests on a simple idea that changes everything: instead of moving a single block, each swipe slides the entire board.

The starting concept recalls 2048. On a 5×5 grid, blocks of the same value that collide merge following the powers of two, up to the ★64, a golden block that crowns the chain. But since everything moves at once, playing it safe is impossible: every gesture is a bet on the whole grid, and the best moves trigger cascading combos.

Creating the ★64 isn't enough, you have to get it out

This is the game's second find, and the one that creates the tension. An exit gate occupies the right edge of the board, and the ★64 must be escorted there to be evacuated. This move earns 1,000 points and frees up space on a grid that's suffocating. You know where the exit is, but the whole board stands in the way — and one bad swipe can wall the golden block in behind a stack.

Around this loop, Negatek has grafted a real-time global leaderboard, which displays the player's exact position during the match, and above all private tournaments: you create a group, set a duration from one hour to one month, and share a code. The leaderboard freezes when the countdown ends and the top player is crowned. The game weighs around fifteen megabytes, works offline, offers a colorblind mode and is available in fourteen languages.

The studio claims a stance against the current of mobile free-to-play: no paid levels, no energy meter, no banner interrupting the action. "We wanted a game you launch for two minutes and can't put down," sums up Negatek, "just a score, a leaderboard, and the urge to get that damn ★64 out through the gate."